St Nicholas’ Primary School PTA
Annual Report September 2021August 2022
Charity NI100417
Minorca Place, Carrickfergus BT38 8AU Email: stnicholaspspta@gmail.com
Committee Members (elected October 2021)
Caroline O’Kane, Chairperson
Noleen McCorry, Treasurer
Paul Rice, Secretary
Fundraising Support team during 2021 - 2022
Marie Anne Templeman
Kevin Lee
Peter Barabas
Emma Brock
Danielle Sampson
Gemma Lowry
Kerry O' Mahony
Teacher Representative
Miss G Doherty / Mrs C Byrne
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT 2021 - 2022
Our purpose
Our purpose is to advance the education of pupils in the school by:
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developing effective relationships between staff, parents and others associated with the school; and
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engaging in activities or providing facilities which support the school and advance the education of the pupils.
As Chairperson of St. Nicholas' Primary School PTA I want to thank everyone in our extended school community who has supported our fundraising activities during the year ended 31 August 2022. All current parents, guardians and staff are members of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and are welcome to join the Committee as a volunteer and contribute to our planning meetings.
This year saw a gradual return to normal school activities as Covid pandemic restrictions were lifted, which allowed the PTA to return to some on site fundraising activities. The PTA felt that it was important to re-establish our visible presence at school, as well as supporting opportunities to welcome families to school events. While our primary focus is fundraising we have also held free competitions as a way to promote our presence. The PTA liaised closely with the Acting Principal on our shared goals of replacing reading books and enhancing the outdoor areas for the children as our primary fundraising focus. As set out below the PTA was delighted to also support various funding requests from school staff.
Fundraising events
During this financial year the PTA organised a number of events, some new and others that were held regularly before the 2020 lockdown.
Using self portraits of all the children, we designed professionally printed wall calendars. Even though sales did not meet our expectations, if was a profitable venture thanks to the sponsorship of local businesses which covered our costs.
In December we held our first event in school for two years. We requested donations of pre loved toys and held a Pop Up Shop which was very successful and popular with the children. Excess items were donated to the local council Christmas toy collection.
During the year each class was given a jar to collect small coins. The children fully engaged with this challenge and across the seven classes an amazing £392 was raised.
In the previous year the PTA started to collect and sell uniform donations. We are conscious to support the school's eco initiatives to reduce waste and reuse items, as well as helping families by offering items for a suggested £1 donation.
The PTA was delighted to run the family BBQ at Sports Day and support the school by selling refreshments at the Summer Garden Party, both of which were very successful school community events. Our final event was a prize raffle at the Awards Day in June.
We also continue to earn donations through selling platforms, AmazonSmile and Easyfundraising, and regularly promote both platforms to increase supporters.
Supporting Our school
The PTA Committee discusses expenditure requests at its meetings with votes taken as required, but the ultimate responsibility for how funds are spent rests with the elected charity trustees. We always aim to get the best value for money, whether purchasing educational resources or consumables for our events.
This year the school had two key priorities for fundraising. Firstly to restock the library and replace old reading books. We were happy to support this investment in literacy and assist staff by availing of discounted retail prices. Secondly, considerable work was undertaken to enhance the outdoor areas with the PTA contributing to the overall project.
As well as helping fund necessary resources, the PTA is keen to contribute to activities and the little extras for the children. We purchased digital pantomimes which the children enjoyed as a Christmas activity and we paid for a software licence to allow families remote viewing of the Christmas shows. At Easter we gifted an Easter egg to every child and we held a free St Patrick's colouring competition with prizes in each class. The PTA also purchased sports day medals and awards day plaques for the children to keep.
All of these activities only take place because there is a team of parent volunteers who donate their time and energy to making them a success, so thank you to everyone who has helped in any way. I also wish to thank the staff of St Nicholas Primary School for their support, helping with setting up events, issuing our communications and promoting the PTA in newsletters and social media.
We look forward to continuing to work together with our school community for the benefit of the children of St. Nicholas Primary School.
Caroline O'Kane November 2022
St Nicholas’ Primary School PTA
Treasurer’s Annual Report 2021-2022
The Treasurer and Committee members of St Nicholas PS PTA are pleased to submit their annual report and accounts for the year 1[st] September 2021 to 31[st] August 2022.
Income
During the year the PTA engaged in new fundraising activities (detailed in the Chairpersons Report and the Financial Statement), including the children’s self-portrait calendars, pop-up shop and coin collection. Events that generated the most profit this year were: pop-up shop (profit (£621); children’s calendar sales (profit, after paying production costs, £492); raffle (profit £542) and coin collection (profit £392). As a result, total income generated for the year 2021-22 was £3418 , representing another increase on previous years when income was £3083 (20202021) and £2186 (2019-20).
Expenditure
During the year the PTA made significant contributions (detailed in Chairpersons Report and Financial Statement) towards school initiatives including the purchase of playground equipment (£1195), books (£1260), and Sports Day / Awards Day trophies (£439), Christmas digital panto (£140), Easter eggs and Easter colouring competition (£139), and catering for school events (£140). Bank fees for the year totalled £109 and subscription to NCPTA was £116.
Expenditure for the year was £4518 , representing an increase on the previous year (£1360, 2021-21).
Balance for the year ended 31[st] August 2022 was £4308.
Noleen McCorry November 2022